UK migration chaos as deportations to Asian countries fall by over 90% | UK | News
A Conservative colleague has highlighted a sharp decline in deportations of illegal immigrants to three Asian countries. He also criticized the reluctance of some foreign governments to facilitate the return of their citizens caught residing illegally in the UK.
The issue was raised during a debate on the Citizenship and Borders Bill 2022 in the House of Lords on 5 November. Shadow Home Secretary Lord Davies of Gower highlighted that the return of individuals from Sri Lanka has fallen by 97% in the last decade, citing data from the UK Immigration Observatory. The figures also show a similar decline for Bangladesh (98%) and Pakistan (84%).
His Tory colleague was speaking in support of Amendment 71 when citing immigration data.
If passed, the amendment would make it mandatory, rather than optional, for the UK Home Office to impose visa penalties on countries that refuse or delay co-operation in verifying identity or accepting the return of their citizens.
“When a country denies or delays identity or status verification, removal becomes nearly impossible,” he said. “Existing provisions of the Citizenship and Borders Act 2022 give the Minister of Real Estate discretion to act. The 71st amendment will turn this into a duty.”
The Conservative Party leader said the Home Secretary supported the idea when he hosted ministers from the Five Eyes intelligence sharing group in September.
“We were talking about much more coordinated action between the Five Eyes countries for the non-ball playing countries,” Shabana Mahmood told reporters at the time.
“And for us, that means cutting visas in the future; we want to say that we expect countries to play ball, play by the rules, and if one of your citizens has no right to be in our country, you should take him back.”
Lord Davies also backed Amendment 35, which would force the Home Office to collect and publish data on how many overseas students have committed crimes, had their visas canceled or been deported.
He stated that there had been examples of “very serious crimes committed by non-UK citizens on student visas”.
“If the Home Office holds such information it should publish it, but if it does not currently hold such information it should be required to do so,” he said.
“Given the importance of transparency to build trust in government, it is somewhat concerning that the Home Office has stated that it does not collect such data. This also shows that there is a gap in the Home Office’s understanding of crime patterns and the prevalence of crimes committed by those on student visas.”
